Nintendo Nostalgia

Nintendo Announce The 2DS: Here's Why It Matters

The fact the N64’s chassis was a wicked see-through ice blue that showed off all the wiring was just the icing on the cake.

Nintendo have just announced another new console, the 2DS. Even though earlier this month, the company revealed some pretty depressing news: its latest console, the Wii U, is barely selling. At all. In fact, just 160,000 units if the Wii U have been sold globally in the past three months. In the same period, the seven year-old Wii sold 210,000. Following this revelation, a host of naysayers gleefully started proclaiming that the end was nigh for the once-great gaming behemoth.

But here’s the thing — nothing could be further from the truth..

The company is so solvent that it managed to turn a profit this last quarter despite diabolical sales, and the 3DS has never looked more promising. So if you’re one of those desperately baying for the company’s blood, take a minute to think about what Nintendo has contributed to the gaming industry and, beyond that, just how much of a role it probably played in your formative years.

As an overly-energetic only child growing up in rural Wales, it was pretty much a given that I would be handed a video game by my long-suffering parents at some stage. From when I was about three years old, they succumbed to the temptation to palm me off with a SEGA Megadrive, in a desperate bid to keep me entertained and gather a moment’s respite. Books had worked for a bit, as had TV, so why shouldn’t video games be just as successful?

What no one foresaw was how easily the gaming seed would take root in me. From the moment I started playing games (early highlights include Road Rash and Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Well researched mum and dad.) I was hooked. But among the myriad titles I played first on my Megadrive and then on my PlayStation, none of them captured me quite so completely as the games I played on my N64. Out of all my gaming memories (and let’s be honest, I’ve got too many), none stick with me stronger than those.

Say what you want about Nintendo these days, but its franchises have always been both startlingly original and wholeheartedly captivating. The affection I felt for my N64 was because it was more than a games console; it was a gateway to fantastical worlds I was enraptured by, a telescope that let me look at mystical lands rather than having to make do with imagining them as was the case with books. The fact the console’s chassis was a wicked see-through ice blue that showed off all the wiring was just the icing on the cake.

When I think of all the games that held my attention when I was a child, the range of genres is pretty large, yet all of them could be found on the N64. From the multiplayer kicks of Goldeneye to the amount of hours in my youth gobbled up playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I was constantly exploring. I’m in no way resentful though; from visiting the Zora in their domain to sadistically assaulting chickens in Kakariko Village, I loved every second. Hell, when my friends came round they were perfectly content (as far as I was concerned) to sit and watch me ride Epona around Hyrule field in ever increasing circles, just “because”. I felt happy to be there, the world felt full of possibilities and I never wanted to leave.

This experience wasn’t unique to the Zelda series, however. Across the N64 there were a host of fantastic titles that had one thing in common; instead of sating your appetite for adventure, they fostered it, encouraging you to pursue bigger and better challenges all the while instilling a strong sense of morality and discovery. The hours my friends and I spent in hysterics playing Pokemon Snap, Banjo-Kazooie or Super Smash Bros. brought us closer together thanks to common interests and values, something it seemed to us Nintendo also shared.

Though people are quick to write-off the GameCube as a lacklustre period for the company, I’d have to disagree. From linking up my Game Boy Advance to play Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles to spending hours curating my town in the original Animal Crossing, I was playing games in innovative new ways and witnessing the creation of genres. As someone who grew up on a farm spending a lot of time outdoors (as my parents wouldn’t let me game for extended periods), when Shigeru Miyamoto revealed Pikmin and explained he’d been inspired by ants, I was fascinated. The concept resonated with me, and the game gripped me. We’re currently living in a time where reskinned shooters and sports sims are released year on year, yet over a decade on no one’s managed to replicate the magic found in the Nintendo titles mentioned above.

Nintendo still innovates now. Admittedly mostly within its existing franchises, but Nintendo games can always take me back to that state of childhood glee in a second. What else can do that? Nintendo games keep you young. With new Zelda, Smash Bros. and an unrevealed franchise all planned for the Wii U within the next year or so, there’s still plenty of time for the company to reverse the console’s fortunes. If they don’t? Well, you can bet your bottom dollar 3DS XLs will be selling like hot cakes come October and the release of Pokemon X & Y.

So put your faith in the 3DS, stay hopeful for the Wii U and above all never give up on Nintendo. Its future may be uncertain, but its past certainly isn’t. For years the company has defined and revolutionised the games industry; more fool you if you think it’s incapable of doing so again.